The government’s Employment Rights Bill will make game-changing improvements to working life through a raft of new individual and collective rights.
Some of the key provisions contained in the bill include:
- the right to sick pay from the first day you’re ill
- family friendly rights, such as parental and bereavement leave from day one, and flexible working as default
- better protection from unfair dismissal
- scrapping exploitative zero-hours contracts
- new collective bargaining bodies for care workers and school support staff
- lifting restrictions on trade unions.
Together in UNISON we will campaign, lobby and mobilise to ensure that promises are fulfilled to transform the labour market, tackle injustices and empower workers.
We’ll set out a robust defence of these important new rights and help prevent them from being watered down by business interests as they make their way through the parliamentary process.
You can read the expert briefing on UNISON’s priorities.
What’s happened so far?
- Over 13,000 UNISON members emailed their MPs asking them to back the bill at second reading
- The bill is now at committee stage, being examined in detail by MPs. The committee first sat on 26 November – with UNISON invited to give evidence – and the committee is scheduled to report by 21 January 2025.
- Four specific topics are also subject to formal consultations, which will close in early December: statutory sick pay, zero hours contracts, trade union modernisation, collective redundancy and fire and rehire. UNISON will submit responses to the consultations, which will inform government amendments to be added to the bill early next year.
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